The National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea (MMCA; director Kim Sunghee) is publishing the catalog book, MMCA Lee Kun-hee Collection. This book is the result of over two years of painstaking research, investigation, and organization of the MMCA Lee Kun-hee Collection following its donation in April 2021.
While some of the 1,488 works (1,494 according to the final registration), donated to MMCA by the family of the late Samsung chairman Lee Kun-hee, have been presented to the public through special exhibitions at MMCA and loans to outside institutions, this marks the first time that a full, detailed catalog is being made available.
The MMCA Lee Kun-hee Collection is a vast assemblage of works collected over many years by Lee. A great deal of effort was spent on careful bibliographic research, expert reviews to examine and confirm the basic information provided by the donors (including artist names, artwork titles, and dates of creation), and precise descriptions of the works. In particular, considerable time was invested into verifying copyright holders and obtaining permission for use, an essential step in presenting artwork to the public through exhibitions and the museum website.
A total of 266 artists were recorded in the MMCA Lee Kun-hee Collection catalog book, 59 of whom—including some overseas artists—had their work added to the MMCA collection for the very first time. The final number of registered artworks amounted to 1,494 as, during the research and investigation process, some acquisitions that initially arrived as a set were recorded as separate items at the artist’s or family members’ request. 83 percent of the acquired works were in two-dimensional media such as painting, prints, and drawings, while around 17 percent assumed other forms such as sculptures, crafts, photographs, and new media. In terms of the time of creation, 87 percent of the newly acquired works were produced between the 1950s and 1990s; over half of the artists whose work was acquired (144) were born prior to 1930, with their work accounting for 88 percent of the entire donation.
The catalog is approximately 900 pages long, separated into three parts (a first section on Korean artwork, a second section on overseas artwork, and an appendix), and contains a list of artworks as well as explanations about each artist and work. The first and second sections also contain essays about the MMCA Lee Kun-hee Collection written by art historians to assist readers’ understanding. Additionally, plates are included to show the work of individual artists. In the case of Korean artists, who account for the majority of the collection, images have been organized by the artist’s birth year to reflect the course of Korean modern and contemporary art history. In the appendix, artists and artworks are ordered by artist name; works under the same artist are then divided by genre and listed in alphabetic order, making it easy to locate information as needed. Though the catalog will not be made available for sale, hard copies will be provided for anyone to read in the libraries of MMCA Seoul, Gwacheon, and Cheongju, as well as in national and public libraries throughout Korea. From January 2024, a PDF version will be made freely available to the public via the museum’s website.
Kim Sunghee, director of the MMCA says, “The publication of this catalog is a truly historic moment and represents three years of effort spent on the MMCA Lee Kun-hee collection, a major focus of attention in Korea and overseas. This is a donation of unprecedented scale, and we anticipate that MMCA’s continued research of the collection will serve as an important record of investigation into Korea’s modern and contemporary art.”
